To know Chicago, visit its neighborhoods

In the May 30 South Loop newsletter The Dearborn Express, editor Al Hippensteel suggests an idea for this summer: “[V]isit three neighborhoods you’ve never been to.” I’ve actually been acting on a visit-the-neighborhoods resolution since the spring, so far going to Old Town, Lincoln Square, Humboldt Park, Pilsen, Little Village, Andersonville, Asian Argyle Street, and Indian Devon Avenue. 

But none of those are neighborhoods I’d never been to. I suspect that Hippensteel is setting his sights beyond the neighborhoods you’ll find in tourist guides, maybe even exploring without a list of what to see.

No script seemed to be Chicago magazine writer Edward Robert McClelland’s idea when he visited the city’s 77 community areas to find “something good” in each. McClelland’s finds are quirky, and that’s the point. “They’re not tourist attractions, most of them, but restaurants, bars, parks, bookstores, bowling alleys, or even hardware stores I find myself gravitating to,” he wrote in a 2022 introduction to the four-part series.

If you think you’ve already seen everything worth seeing, McClelland has this message: “Even though I’ve lived in Chicago for 25 years, there’s always an unfamiliar corner to turn. … [I]f you do manage to see it all, you can start over again, and it will be a new experience.”

Another article I recall from years ago also provides inspiration. The writer, a New Yorker, said that he and his wife choose a different restaurant outside their usual haunts for a meal every Sunday. That would seem to be a springboard to a neighborhood exploration.  

After consulting various websites, I’ve identified some possibilities (unlike McClelland, I can’t stop myself from planning): Avondale, Bridgeport, West Town, and North Center. I’ve passed through some but not explored them. People report they have appeal.

Besides visiting new-to-me neighborhoods, I’m learning of fresh possibilities in my own South Loop. Revival, an improv theater, recently moved to 906 S. Wabash Avenue, just a block from me. Some friends and I have also talked about checking out another relative newcomer, The Blue Room at 1401 S. Michigan Avenue, which presents live and recorded music in a speakeasy-style basement. 

 

Despite its name, Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University was known to me as a space to hear student concerts. I didn’t pay much attention to the photos on the walls until I read a rave review in New City of the exhibition “A Home In This World: A Review of The Legacy of Arthur Rothstein’s Photography.” Gage Gallery, it turns out, is one of the country’s few spaces dedicated to documentary photography. 

Satisfying my interests in both American history and photojournalism, Rothstein’s photographs made for one of the best exhibits I’ve seen in a long time. Rothstein was the first photographer hired by the New Deal’s Farm Security Administration, which built support for federal relief programs through photography. The exhibit, which unfortunately closed May 31, spotlighted dozens of Rothstein’s black-and-white photographs of rural communities affected most by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. I’ll be looking for the gallery’s next exhibit.

Whether down the block or at the outer edges, the nooks and crannies of a big city invite exploration. Chicago is often described as a city of neighborhoods. As many have pointed out, you don’t know Chicago if you don’t know its neighborhoods.